Puma’s Amory Ross says “we had distant lightning, several 22-plus knot squalls and a solid thud of something hitting one of the daggerboards.”

Only five nautical miles separates leaders Telefonica, Camper, Groupama and Puma after more than 1,000 miles racing since leaving the Maldives last Sunday. The boats are due to arrive at the Chinese port of Sanya on Feb. 5 or 6.

Miami Regatta: Americans Jennifer French and Jean-Paul Creignou qualified for the London Paralympic Games with a third-place finish in the Skud-18 class at the Rolex Miami OCR on Friday.

Australia’s Daniel Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch won the class by one point over Britain’s Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell.

France’s Damien Seguin took gold, Canada’s Paul Tingley finished second, and the Netherlands’ Barend Kol had two fourth-place finishes Friday to beat out Britain’s Megan Pascoe for the bronze medal in the 10-race 2.4mR meet.